


Miracle on State Road

by PadawanRyan



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, First Meetings, Four Seasons Total Landscaping (US Political RPF), Inspired By Tumblr, Loneliness, Love at First Sight, M/M, Merry Little Peterick 2020 (Fall Out Boy), Sex Shop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27771526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PadawanRyan/pseuds/PadawanRyan
Summary: The redhead/blonde/whatever he waswas already turning Pete’s life upside down and it had been only about five minutes since the man walked into said life.If you could even say that, considering the man hadn’t even looked in Pete’s direction yet.That was about to change.
Relationships: Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz
Comments: 18
Kudos: 32
Collections: Have Yourself Some Merry Little Peterick 2020





	Miracle on State Road

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this idea popped my head randomly a little over a month ago. Originally, I saw [this Tumblr post about landscaper/sex shop owner being the new AU for 2020](https://ao3commentoftheday.tumblr.com/post/634740083754434560), and immediately I thought that it would suit Pete and Patrick: Pete would be the sex shop owner, and Patrick - with his wood-chopping finesse from the [Deep Blue Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMS_-uVj_C4) video circulating in my mind - would be the landscaper. As soon as I shared that idea, I thought it would be great to write them in those roles for a Christmas fic: both working alone on Christmas Eve and then deciding to spend it together. I knew immediately that I _had_ to write it for the Christmas Peterick challenge.
> 
> So, it's a shorter one. It's nowhere near as long as [my Hallowe'en fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26884201) was - well, nothing I've written has really been that long besides my Master's thesis and PhD comprehensive (on which I am finally making significant progress) - but I knew from the beginning that it wouldn't be, so I am happy with it. This actually turned out much sweeter than I intended - usually they turn out more angsty than intended! - but I think that suits the holiday season, don't you?
> 
> Also, I am aware that the sex shop and the Four Seasons Total Landscaping are actually right beside one another, but for the purposes of this fic, they are across the street instead. You'll understand soon.
> 
> And also, yes: the title is a play on Miracle on 34th Street, except that the respective businesses are on State Road.

There was a time when Pete was once idealistic, when he was young and thought that owning a sex shop was the coolest thing he could ever possibly do. He would be the expert on sexual pleasure, and everyone would want a piece of him.

Plus, if he ignored the lack of revenue, the 100% store owner discount was the best thing he could possibly imagine.

That time didn’t last very long.

It turned out, Pete realized quickly, that owning a sex shop was no different than owning any other retail store. People didn’t want your expert advice on sexual pleasure – well, sometimes they did, but those were usually the kids who were looking to have a good first time or the older adults looking to put a spark back into their monotonous sex life – and they certainly come into the store to pick anyone up. Instead, they complained about prices. They raged when a product wasn’t working because they _conveniently_ forgot to read the “not waterproof” part of the label and submerged it in the bathtub.

And Pete spent more time kicking out minors – who puffed out their chests and dropped their voices to give the impression of being an adult – than anything else, because most people who were old enough for a credit card were purchasing their toys online.

He made enough profit to keep both the store and himself afloat, but only by a margin.

Pete’s shop was across the street from a landscaping company in a small, otherwise insignificant neighbourhood in Philadelphia. He could barely remember anymore why he moved to Pennsylvania besides that he wanted to get as far away as possible from his parents, who didn’t approve of him dropping out of college to open an erotic retail store.

And ten years later, he was still working in the same neighbourhood. His clientele changed pretty rapidly as more kids became adults and more adults became unfulfilled, but everything around him was pretty stagnant.

Which was why he was completely _blindsided_ by the gorgeous redhead he saw through the window across the street.

Or was he blonde? Pete couldn’t really tell from his front counter.

It was Christmas Eve, and Pete had been sitting at his counter, bored for the better part of two hours. The last customer he had was a young man – probably in his early twenties, Pete hadn’t checked his identification – looking for a last minute gift for his girlfriend, and must have decided that perhaps some exciting Christmas sex would do the trick. Pete felt a little sorry for the girl, because the kid clearly had no idea what she would even like. In any case, it was Christmas Eve and he still had another thirty minutes before he closed up.

Not that it mattered, since he could close earlier than usual for the holiday and nobody would think twice about it. But what else was Pete going to do?

It wasn’t like he had anyone with whom to spend the holiday.

Once upon a time, he would have gone to a friend’s house for Christmas Eve dinner, maybe even stay the night and do breakfast the next morning. He did this with Bill and Gabe for years, and even occasionally with Joe when he was feeling down and wanted to forget it was Christmas. His Jewish friend always had an undecorated apartment, an ear to listen, and enough weed that Pete could manage to pass into the new year without even realizing it.

But everyone was growing up and Pete supposed they all realized their biological clocks were ticking because suddenly everyone had a kid. Some even had two. Some even had _three_ , which Pete thought was insane. Who wanted to have three kids?

Besides his parents, of course. They had to keep going in case the first was an inevitable disappointment.

And boy, was he ever.

So, his friends were now doing Christmas with their partners and children, and Pete was left all alone, working in his shop on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t that he wasn’t welcome – he knew Joe would still insist that he come over, still break away for a quick joint with Pete – but it wouldn’t be the same. Pete didn’t want to impose on people’s families. His plan was to work straight through until closing time, lock up the store, and then head down to his favourite bar for a drink or two before going back home for the night. Maybe he’d even order some pizza, though he didn’t have enough change for a generous holiday tip.

But something about the man in the window across the street made him rethink his plan.

He looked at the clock. Twenty-five minutes to go. Despite his earlier insistence on staying for his entire shift to kill some time – he felt more productive being lonely at work as opposed to lonely at home – he could conceivably close up early.

Nobody was coming in at four-thirty-five in the afternoon on Christmas Eve for a new vibrator unless they were desperate, and Pete’s desperation outweighed anyone else’s at the moment.

With more fire than he had felt all day – hell, all year – Pete dashed to the back of the store to grab his coat, turned off all the lights, and locked the store on his way out. He'd barely made it across the street before he realized: what was he going to say to the man? “Hi, I saw you through the window and my dick immediately sprang to life?” It had been so long since he approached someone with the intention of voicing attraction, he wasn’t even sure _how_ to approach someone anymore. The redhead/blonde/ _whatever he was_ was already turning Pete’s life upside down and it had been only about five minutes since the man walked into said life.

If you could even say that, considering the man hadn’t even looked in Pete’s direction yet.

That was about to change.

By the time he reached the door, another question popped into his head: what if the man wasn’t interested? After all, Pete wasn’t exactly a catch. He was forty years old with nothing to his name besides a plethora of sex toys – in both his professional and personal lives – and prescription medication, which he was at least taking regularly (something which he struggled to do for quite some time). And what if he made the guy uncomfortable? You don’t hit on someone in their workplace when they can’t actually get away from you, something that young Pete never would have cared about but apparently older Pete did. Huh, maybe he _had_ matured.

But it was too late, he couldn’t turn back. His hand was already on the door and he watched as the man’s head sprung up to see who was causing the bell above the door to ring, and _god fucking damnit_.

Those _eyes_.

Pete was in _love_.

He could write sonnets about the man sitting at the front desk of the landscaping company, with his red-blonde hair underneath a Santa hat and his blueish – at least Pete thought they were blue – eyes shining behind his thick-rimmed, black glasses. This man couldn’t possibly exist, could he? Nobody was that beautiful. This had to be a Christmas miracle or something—some people turned to Pete for sexual Christmas miracles (though “some” may have been five, at most) and this was surely the world’s way of repaying him the favour.

It wasn’t until the man opened his mouth that Pete realized he was staring. “Can I help you?” the man asked.

Oh, _that voice_. It was not at all what Pete had expected.

“Hi,” Pete said dumbly. Goddamn, this guy was going to think he was an idiot. Then again, would he be wrong? “I’m Pete.”

The man blinked at him a moment. Pete thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. “Do you have an appointment?” he asked. “I don’t remember seeing anything for today on the schedule, but it wouldn’t have been the first mistake I made…” The man trailed off as he turned to his computer, presumably to check the details of the assumed appointment. “It’s my first week, you see,” he continued, “and I just keep—”

“No, no,” Pete interrupted. “I work at the shop across the street. Fantasy Island?”

“Oh.” The man’s eyebrows furrowed. “Did I park in your spot? I can move my car, I just parked where they told me to—”

“No, no! You haven’t done anything.”

Although the man still looked confused, Pete could see some relief in his expression at Pete’s statement. He nodded but he said nothing, and Pete would bet that he was trying to figure out what the hell Pete was even doing there.

“I was just closing up,” Pete explained. “It’s Christmas Eve so I figured I would close up early, and when I looked across the street, I saw you. I figured that maybe, if we’re stuck working on Christmas Eve together, maybe we could get a drink together after closing up? But,” because Pete realized as he was talking that no one in their right mind (except maybe _him_ ) was available on Christmas Eve, “you probably have somewhere else to be, so I’m sorry that I intruded on your time like this and you won’t have to see me ever—”

This time, the other man interrupted Pete. “Uhhh, no, actually,” he said. “I don’t have anywhere else to be. Not…not this year.”

Pete could hear his voice get smaller and figured that there was a story there. “Oh?” he asked.

“Bad breakup," the man uttered, shrugging. Clearly he didn't want to discuss it further, so Pete wasn't going to interrogate him. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. “Maybe I was a little too forward then about the drink, you can forget about that. I don’t want to push you into—”

“No, I want to get a drink,” he interrupted again.

Pete couldn’t help but smile so big that his cheeks actually hurt. “Great! That’s, uhh—great.”

“Except,” the man continued, “I have to stay until at least five o’clock. My uncle – he owns the place, and I think he’s training me up to take over as soon as he retires, though why he’d want _me_ in charge is a mystery – would have my hide if I left early. He seems to think that even on Christmas Eve, when people _should_ be preparing their dinners with their families – you know, like _he_ is right now – that we will have a line out the door of people needing to address their landscaping needs.” He rolled his eyes as he muttered, “Not that I could help them with that, anyway.”

“That’s fine!” Pete reassured him. “We only have about fifteen minutes, that’ll go by in no time. Do you want me to leave or can I…?”

“You can wait here,” the man said. “I’m not sending you out into the cold, someone like you probably wouldn’t even come back for me and now that I’m actually _excited_ about something for the first time today, I am not letting you leave.”

“Someone like me?”

“Oh,” the man flushed as he replied, “umm…hot. Someone attractive.”

Pete could have bugged the man about it. He could have teased and watched him flush even more and god, he would have _loved_ that. If Pete thought the man was gorgeous when he had first seen him through the window, he was already envisioning proposing to him the moment that the man’s face turned red with his confession. But Pete also didn’t want to scare him away so soon, so he tucked the comment into the back of his mind – that his own little Christmas miracle apparently thought Pete was hot, imagine that! – and just continued to smile at him. He felt like this could be something special.

He was about to reciprocate the compliment when suddenly, the phone rang. The man reached for the phone and told Pete that, “this will only take a moment.”

“Four Seasons Total Landscaping, Patrick speaking. How may I direct your call?”

Patrick. The man’s name was _Patrick_.

It suited him.

“No, I’m sorry, you’re looking for the Four Seasons Philadelphia,” Patrick told the person on the other end. “This is the Four Seasons _Total Landscaping_. We do…landscaping. I can get you the number for the hotel, if you don’t mind waiting a moment—”

Apparently the person _did_ mind waiting because even Pete could hear the line go dead and the tone ring out from the receiver. Patrick did not seem whatsoever phased by what happened, so Pete imagined that it must have happened a lot. The redhead/blonde/whatever confirmed this as he hung up the phone. “Everyone seems to think we’re the Four Seasons. You know, the hotel?” He shook his head and chuckled. “One day I’m not even going to correct them. I’d love to see the look on their faces when they get here and all they see is…this.”

Patrick gestured at the room around him. Pete laughed and joked, “But the real question is: do you offer room service?”

“That depends,” the other man responded simply.

“On?” Pete prompted.

Patrick’s eyes darkened as he bore into Pete’s and grinned something that seemed _oh so filthy_ , the total opposite of what the man wore on his face only moments earlier. “On what sort of service you’re looking for,” he clarified, voice low and sultry and going _straight_ to Pete’s dick. God, that escalated quickly.

Not that he would complain, of course.

“Let me buy you a drink after work,” Pete suggested, “and maybe I’ll give you a demonstration.”

The other man smirked in response and looked down at his desk - a little shyly, Pete noted - before looking back at Pete. “I think I’ll have to stay the whole night. You know, to get the whole experience.”

“Deal.”

Waiting for Patrick to finish his shift and close up barely took any time at all. In fact, once they were free to spend the rest of the night together, the rest of the night went by quickly. Pete took Patrick out for a drink before they retired back to Pete’s apartment, which was an embarrassing mess that the other man surprisingly did not seem to mind. The sex was absolutely spectacular – Pete might say it was the best he ever had, though he might have been biased because it had been so long – and Pete drifted off to sleep with Patrick’s arms around his waist, Patrick’s face in his neck, Patrick’s breath on his skin.

In the morning, Pete woke to Patrick’s morning wood pressing against his still naked ass, and god, it had to be the best way to wake up on Christmas morning.

Even better was that Patrick seemed to be in no rush to leave.

“You’re my Christmas miracle, you know that?” Pete told him as they lay naked and sweating, soaked in post-coital bliss. “I was having the shittiest Christmas ever – the shittiest year ever, to be honest – and then I met you, and suddenly I feel alive again. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m never letting you go. You are stuck with me for the rest of your life.”

“That seems a little fast,” Patrick responded, but there was a warmth to his tone. Pete shook his head. “I don’t care. Someone up there wanted me to have a gorgeous, redheaded landscaper in my life—”

“ _Future_ landscaper. Right now I’m just a glorified secretary,” Patrick corrected him. “And I’m blonde.”

“— _and_ I’m not going to question it. I’m just going to keep him.”

Pete leaned in to press his lips to the other man’s gently, giving him a sweet kiss to seal the promise of his words. Someday there would be a bigger promise, he could already feel it – they were destined to do great things together – but in the meantime, as he pulled back from Patrick and looked at the adoration in the other man’s eyes, this would be enough. And, as he climbed off the bed to go take a shower and make the two of them a warm Christmas breakfast, he knew he had been telling the truth: Pete didn’t know what he did to deserve Patrick, but he was never, _ever_ letting him go.

Christmas miracles might happen twice, Pete didn’t know how the magic of the holiday season worked. But he wasn’t willing to take that risk.

Plus, he didn’t want any other miracle but Patrick.

* * *

About Ten and a Half Months Later

“Fuck, I can’t fucking believe you did that,” Pete told his boyfriend in between bouts of laughter as he read the news article on the screen in front of him.

“I _did_ tell you that one day I would.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays! I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, especially given the unprecedented circumstances that are 2020.
> 
> Follow me on social media! I'm **padawanryan** on [Tumblr](https://padawanryan.tumblr.com/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/PadawanRyan), and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/padawanryan/). ✌️


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